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Lillehaug to prosecute RL slaying
U.S. Attorney makes promise to Red Lake residents
By Nate Bowe
Bemidji Pioneer
The No.l priority of U.S. Attorney
David Lillehaug is to successfully
prosecute the killers of Wesley Strong,
a Red Lake High School senior
stabbed to death at a graduation party
May 25.
Lillehaug made the pledge to about
75 Red Lake Reservation residents at
a town meeting here Monday.
The reservation has been shaken by
three shooting incidents and a brutal
beating in the last two weeks that
appear to be connected to Strong's
death.
On June 16, Gary Head, the father
of Wesley Strong, was arrested and
charged with firing at a relative of a
person Head allegedly suspected was
involved in his son's death. Head is
detained pending trial.
On June 14 Michael Beaulieu Jr. was
severely beaten. Kelly Greene has
been arrested and charged with assault
resulting in serious bodily harm. The
government is seeking to detain
Greene pending trial.
Shortly after the Beauliea beating,
three persons were wounded in two
shooting indidents, one at the Kelly
Greene residence. The FBI and the
Red Lake police are continuing their
investigation into those shootings. On
June 15, in what appears to be an act
of violence unrelated to the other
incidents, numerous rounds were fired
into a home, endangering seven
children. The next day Michael Dafoe
and a teenage boy were arrested and
charged with assault with a deadly
weapon. Dafoe has been ordered
detained.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's
Office, working with the tribal police,
"have moved quickly and aggressively
to respond to recent violence on the
Red Lake Indian Reservation,"
Lillehaug said.
"This cycle of violence at Red Lake
must stop," he added. "If it does not,
those who resort to violence will be
spending many years in federal
prison."
Unlike most other reservations in
Minnesota, by act of Congress most
major violent crimes at Red Lake are
federal crimes.
"These acts of violence are a very
serious concern to the FBI and to our
office," Lillehaug said at the meeting.
"One reason I wanted to become U.S.
Attorney is because I wanted to make
a difference in Indian country."
Two prime suspects in the Strong
killing have been arrested on tribal
charges and. are being held in the
Beltrami County Jail, according to
Red Lake Public Safety Director Ron
Turney. Suspects have been identified
in Strong's death, but witnesses tell
conflicting stories and a federal grand
jury has been convened to sort out the
truth, Lillehaug said.
No one has been charged in Strong's
death because, after charges are filed,
"a timetable starts ticking," Lillehaug
said. Prosecutors then have just 60 to
70 days to make a case. "We can only
try them once. As bad as things are, it
would be worse if charges were
dismissed," he said.
"One of the problems we had after
the death of Wesley is we seemed to
have no response," said a man in the
audience. "The suspects were free to
(Cont'd page 3, Promise)
Feds at ex-tribal official's White Earth home
Lillehaug attends community meeting at Red Lake
Cass County deputy charged with abuse
MN Appeals Court judge addresses NAJA
U.S. threatens takeover of Kiowa finances
Voice ofthe People
J
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 1 988
Volume 9 Issue 37
June B7, 1997
Five arrested at Red Lake by tribal police
Charges include making terroristic threats
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1997
By Larry Adams
According to Red Lake Nation
Tribal Court Criminal Complaints, on
June 6, 1997, at approximately 3:07
a.m., four Red Lake men and one Red
Lake woman were arrested on criminal
charges including possession of
alcohol, several pounds of marijuana,
receiving stolen property, keeping a
disorderly house, obstructing legal
process/arrest, and making terroristic
threats to police officers.
Apparently, Red Lake police officers
were executing a search warrant at the
Iris Lussier residence when Billy Jo
Mason, 19, Ira Mason, 20, Paul Mason,
25, Duane Fisher, 18 and Tori Lussier,
22, all of Red Lake, apparently
barricaded themselves inside the Iris
Lussier home by using wooden boards
and metal braces.
Police confiscated what appeared to
be three pounds of marijuana in various
plastic bags that were sent away for
illegal drug confirmation testing. Also
found at the Lussier residence were
two .22 fifles and one .9 mm pistol.
Red Lake Public Safety Director
Ron Turney said that Billy Jo Mason
is scheduled for a trial by judge on
July 16, 1997.
Cass County deputy charged with abuse
in traffic stop on Leech Lake
By Jeff Armstrong
A routine traffic stop on the Leech
Lake Reservation ended in the arrest
and incarceration- of two Anishinabe
women, one of whom was injured by
Cass County's sheriff's deputy Robert Karbowski in the June 21 incident.
"First, he hit me with a flashlight,
then he grabbed my hair and he maced
me," said Renee Judkins, who was
riding in a van with her cousin, Paula
Wilson, and three small children, ages
5 and 6.
When Judkins managed to break
away from Karbowski and flee, she
says, the deputy pulled his gun on her.
"When he realized he couldn't catch
me, I could hear him stop. Then he
hollered 'stop' and I could hear him
pulling his gun out. But I kept running, and I kept thinking it's going to
come. I'm going to get it in the back.
"But then those kids hopped out of
the van screaming and carrying on like
crazy people and I knew I had to stop
because I knew they were running after me, and I knew they were in his
line," Judkins recalled.
According to the criminal complaint
against Wilson and Judkins,
Karbowski pulled the vehicle over for
displaying allegedly expired Georgia
tabs and asked Wilson to produce a
driver's license. An unidentified Cass
County deputy's report claims the
women then got of the van "...and
started yelling at Deputy Karbowski
indicating that they had no authority
to stop them."
Karbowski then asked Wilson, who
said she did not have driver's license
along, to accompany the deputy to his
squad car to run a check, according
to the report. "At that point," the complaint alleges, "both Wilson and the
other female...came at Deputy
Karbowski, hitting and kicking him.
"As Deputy Karbowski was attempting to control JUDKINS and Wilson,"
the complaint alleges, "Cass County
Deputy Sheriff Berglund arrived and
WILSON broke loose...with Deputy
Berglund running after her. Judkins
continued to swing at Deputy
Karbowski with her fists in an attempt
to kick him in the crotch" until the two
deputies managed to subdue the
women, though the report makes no
mention ofthe use of force.
Topping the scales at 105 pounds,
Judkins ridiculed the notion that she
attacked an armed deputy with a reputation for excessive use of force. The
Minnesota Chippewa Tribal member
said she merely questioned
Kabowski's attempts to force Wilson,
her cousin, into the squad car for no
apparent reason.
"We weren't drinking, we weren't
raising hell, the worst he could do was
charge us with no tabs—we thought,"
she said.
"When I asked him what was going
on, he told me it was none of my
ing business, and if I didn't get
(Cont'd page 3, IVaffic)
U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug responds to questions at the Redby town meeting addressing violence on the Red Lake reservation, June 23,1997.
MN Appeals Court Judge addresses NAJA
conference on sovereignty
Feds confiscate items from Clark home in
renewed probe of White Earth officials
By Gary Blair
On June 19,1997, investigators from
the Inspector General's Office ofthe
U.S. Department of HUD searched
imprisoned former White Earth tribal
councilmember Rickie Clark's home
and outside storage buildings for stolen
property.
Sources at the reservation who asked
not to be named say the loot they
found was staggering. The latest move
by federal authorities is said to be part
of their ongoing probe into allegations
that $4.5 million is missing from the
reservation's federally funded housing
program.
Along with former reservation
secretary/treasurer Jerry Rawley, and
former tribal chairman Darrell "Chip"
Wadena, Clark was convicted last June
of Federal corruption charges. The
trio is reported to be the prime suspect
in the latest round of investigations at
White Earth. Sources close to the
investigation say that if Wadena is
convicted in this latest theft, he could
very likely spend the rest of his life in
prison. Clark and Rawley are now
incarerated at the Federal Correctional
Facility near Duluth, MN, while
Wadena is being held at the Federal
Prison at Sandstone, MN.
Reports say the search warrants
served last week at Clark's residence
will be sealed for 60 days. "We want
people to know what's been happening
here. My name is not important at this
point," the source continued.
"They found $ 100 in Clark's house.
In the large storage sheds they found
10 SeaDoo's (personal watercraft).
Six Harley-Davison motor cylces and
two unused speed boats with motors.
One 30ft. cabin curiser boat and four
4-wheel drive pickups. Four Chevy
Subburbans valued at $30,000 a piece
and one motorhome."
Federal investigators also found
building supplies valued at hundreds
of thousands of dollars. They were
stamped with North County Lumber
of Mcintosh, MN, which still had the
job numbers on them. There were rolls
of carpets, padding and boxes of tile.
"You could build 60 houses with the
stuff they found," the source remarked.
"They (authorities) did not have
enough time to get all the stuff out of
Clark's place, so they had to seal the
storage buildings with some of the
stuff still inside.
"The things that they did get are
stored at the reservation housing
program's warehouse. They had the
housing crew build a ply-board wall
up around that stuff, and it's sealed so
no one can get at it," the source
explained. Additional sources say
federal investigators from the
Inspector Generals Office of HUD
and the U.S. Interior Department are
continuing to move forward with their
investigations at White Earth, a place
with a history of corruption.
"Anybody who has been involved in
(Cont'd page 5, Clark)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A state Court
of Appeals judge said Thursday that
the concept of tribal sovereignty
amounts to nothing more than "Red
Apartheid."
"This is a profound issue, a burning
issue, as we move into the 21st century, as you struggle for your rights as
Native American people," Judge R.A.
Randall told about 200 people at a
panel discussion.
The debate was part of the Native
American Journalists Association's
annual conference. Jerry Hill, legal
counsel for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, also was part ofthe discussion.
The U.S. Constitution and numerous treaties recognize tribes as sovereign, or independent, nations. But
Randall said tribal sovereignty works
against - not for - American Indians.
The judge has written two of the
most condemning opinions ofthe con-
Red Lake violence update
By Larry Adams
Last week's PRESS/ON story
concerning the violence happening on
the Red Lake Reservation has sparked
a media frenzy.
In regards to the Chad Beaulieu
beating, Kelly Green was arrested and
charged with assault resulting in
serious bodily harm on June 16,1997,
according to a David Lillehaug U.S.
Department of Justice news release.
Green is an enrolled member of the
Red Lake Nation, which the PRESS/
ON was unable to confirm in last
week's story.
Mike Good, who was reported to be
at the Rueben Wind party, called last
week. Good denied being at the Wind
party. To date, the PRESS/ON has
been unable to positively confirm or
deny Good's presence at the party as
conflicting stories have been reported.
cept. Because of tribal sovereignty, he
said, reservation leaders aren't held
accountable to a higher law, making
it easy for them to abuse their power.
"You simply have to use common
sense and cut out the smoke and rhetoric," he said.
Pounding his fist on a table, Hill retorted, "You accuse tribal leaders of
abusing members, willy-nilly. You're
lumping everybody together."
Last year, the judge wrote a strongly
worded dissent in a tribal sovereignty
case, saying tribal members are Minnesota citizens on Minnesota land. In
that case, a woman who was injured
at a casino sued the casino corporation, but the state Appeals Court ruled
that the corporation's purpose is governmental and, therefore, sovereign.
Randall also has decried the inequities whereby reservations with casinos make big money while those
without casinos remain dirt poor. "I
fear nothing except social injustice for
all people," said Randall, responding
to an implication that he was afraid of
Indians gaining too much power.
Randall is not American Indian but
speaks Ojibwe and has helped to build
an Indian school in Alaska. The judge
has been given an Indian name and
worked with the Lac LaCroix Ojibwe
reservation in Canada to protect its
fishing rights in the Boundary Waters
Canoe Area.
He denied that he was against Indian rights, saying "I am not part of
any 'white guy' movement."
Hill, a past president ofthe American Indian Bar Association, said he is
tired of whites telling Indians what's
good for them. "Non-Indian people
need to know that we don't need to be
defined by them," he said. "We know
who we are.."
Tribal sovereignty discussed at national
conference on gambling
By Julie Shortridge
The National Council of Legislators
from Gaming States held its annual
conference June -20-22 at the
downtown Sheraton Hotel in Hartford,
Connecticut. Approximately 150
legislators, legislative staff, lobbyists
and gambling industry representatives
from 33 states attended the three day
event, which included panel
discussions on various gambling
issues, including state lotteries,
charitable gambling, gambling
addiction, regulations, and tribal
casinos.
One panel was entitled "Indian
Gaming and the States: Does
Sovereignty Have Limits?" Panelists
included Tim Wapato, Executive
Director of the National Indian
Gaming Association in Washington
D.C; Thomas Acevedo, head of
gambling for the Mohegan Tribe in
Connecticut; Sara Bond, Assistant
Attorney General from Montana: and
Alexis Johnson, a private practice
attorney from New Mexico.
Panelists discussed the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), state
authority to restrict certain games at
tribal casinos, and the sources and
extent of tribal sovereignty, including
jurisdictional questions depending on
if a person's legal status is "Indian,"
"non-Indian," or "tribal member" and
whether the activities occur on "Indian
lands" in trust status, within
reservation boundaries, or on other
private or public land.
According to Williams, states do
not have regulatory oversight
concerning tribal gambling
operations. But other panelists pointed
out that tribes cannot legally operate
casinos unless a compact between the
state and the tribe is legally entered
into, the provisions of which may
include some state oversight.
States are obligated by the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act to negotiate
"in good faith" with tribes who want
to open a casino, but states are not
obligated to enter into such ah
agreement. Thus states can, in fact,
prohibit the operation of tribal
casinos, and IGRA allows for states
to restrict some forms of tribal
gambling in some situations.
Wapato and Acevedo claim tribal
sovereignty is "inherent" and predates the United States Constitution,
but Johnson said tribes derive their
sovereignty, as legally defined today,
from the federal government. Tribal
sovereignty is a matter of federal
policy, not law.
"Congress can terminate the legal
status and sovereignty ofa tribe at any
time, but Congress cannot terminate
the sovereignty of a state.... Tribal
sovereignty is not equal to state
sovereignty," Johnson said. He said
that tribal sovereignty does not extend
beyond self-government and internal
matters, or into activities of
commerce. When you put a casino
on tribal ground, the law has tended
to imperfectly apply, for reasons real
and imagined....The law actually
applies to tribal casinos more than
people believe," said Johnson, who is
a constitutional lawyer.
(Cont'd p. 8, Gambling)

Lillehaug to prosecute RL slaying
U.S. Attorney makes promise to Red Lake residents
By Nate Bowe
Bemidji Pioneer
The No.l priority of U.S. Attorney
David Lillehaug is to successfully
prosecute the killers of Wesley Strong,
a Red Lake High School senior
stabbed to death at a graduation party
May 25.
Lillehaug made the pledge to about
75 Red Lake Reservation residents at
a town meeting here Monday.
The reservation has been shaken by
three shooting incidents and a brutal
beating in the last two weeks that
appear to be connected to Strong's
death.
On June 16, Gary Head, the father
of Wesley Strong, was arrested and
charged with firing at a relative of a
person Head allegedly suspected was
involved in his son's death. Head is
detained pending trial.
On June 14 Michael Beaulieu Jr. was
severely beaten. Kelly Greene has
been arrested and charged with assault
resulting in serious bodily harm. The
government is seeking to detain
Greene pending trial.
Shortly after the Beauliea beating,
three persons were wounded in two
shooting indidents, one at the Kelly
Greene residence. The FBI and the
Red Lake police are continuing their
investigation into those shootings. On
June 15, in what appears to be an act
of violence unrelated to the other
incidents, numerous rounds were fired
into a home, endangering seven
children. The next day Michael Dafoe
and a teenage boy were arrested and
charged with assault with a deadly
weapon. Dafoe has been ordered
detained.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's
Office, working with the tribal police,
"have moved quickly and aggressively
to respond to recent violence on the
Red Lake Indian Reservation,"
Lillehaug said.
"This cycle of violence at Red Lake
must stop," he added. "If it does not,
those who resort to violence will be
spending many years in federal
prison."
Unlike most other reservations in
Minnesota, by act of Congress most
major violent crimes at Red Lake are
federal crimes.
"These acts of violence are a very
serious concern to the FBI and to our
office," Lillehaug said at the meeting.
"One reason I wanted to become U.S.
Attorney is because I wanted to make
a difference in Indian country."
Two prime suspects in the Strong
killing have been arrested on tribal
charges and. are being held in the
Beltrami County Jail, according to
Red Lake Public Safety Director Ron
Turney. Suspects have been identified
in Strong's death, but witnesses tell
conflicting stories and a federal grand
jury has been convened to sort out the
truth, Lillehaug said.
No one has been charged in Strong's
death because, after charges are filed,
"a timetable starts ticking," Lillehaug
said. Prosecutors then have just 60 to
70 days to make a case. "We can only
try them once. As bad as things are, it
would be worse if charges were
dismissed," he said.
"One of the problems we had after
the death of Wesley is we seemed to
have no response," said a man in the
audience. "The suspects were free to
(Cont'd page 3, Promise)
Feds at ex-tribal official's White Earth home
Lillehaug attends community meeting at Red Lake
Cass County deputy charged with abuse
MN Appeals Court judge addresses NAJA
U.S. threatens takeover of Kiowa finances
Voice ofthe People
J
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 1 988
Volume 9 Issue 37
June B7, 1997
Five arrested at Red Lake by tribal police
Charges include making terroristic threats
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1997
By Larry Adams
According to Red Lake Nation
Tribal Court Criminal Complaints, on
June 6, 1997, at approximately 3:07
a.m., four Red Lake men and one Red
Lake woman were arrested on criminal
charges including possession of
alcohol, several pounds of marijuana,
receiving stolen property, keeping a
disorderly house, obstructing legal
process/arrest, and making terroristic
threats to police officers.
Apparently, Red Lake police officers
were executing a search warrant at the
Iris Lussier residence when Billy Jo
Mason, 19, Ira Mason, 20, Paul Mason,
25, Duane Fisher, 18 and Tori Lussier,
22, all of Red Lake, apparently
barricaded themselves inside the Iris
Lussier home by using wooden boards
and metal braces.
Police confiscated what appeared to
be three pounds of marijuana in various
plastic bags that were sent away for
illegal drug confirmation testing. Also
found at the Lussier residence were
two .22 fifles and one .9 mm pistol.
Red Lake Public Safety Director
Ron Turney said that Billy Jo Mason
is scheduled for a trial by judge on
July 16, 1997.
Cass County deputy charged with abuse
in traffic stop on Leech Lake
By Jeff Armstrong
A routine traffic stop on the Leech
Lake Reservation ended in the arrest
and incarceration- of two Anishinabe
women, one of whom was injured by
Cass County's sheriff's deputy Robert Karbowski in the June 21 incident.
"First, he hit me with a flashlight,
then he grabbed my hair and he maced
me," said Renee Judkins, who was
riding in a van with her cousin, Paula
Wilson, and three small children, ages
5 and 6.
When Judkins managed to break
away from Karbowski and flee, she
says, the deputy pulled his gun on her.
"When he realized he couldn't catch
me, I could hear him stop. Then he
hollered 'stop' and I could hear him
pulling his gun out. But I kept running, and I kept thinking it's going to
come. I'm going to get it in the back.
"But then those kids hopped out of
the van screaming and carrying on like
crazy people and I knew I had to stop
because I knew they were running after me, and I knew they were in his
line," Judkins recalled.
According to the criminal complaint
against Wilson and Judkins,
Karbowski pulled the vehicle over for
displaying allegedly expired Georgia
tabs and asked Wilson to produce a
driver's license. An unidentified Cass
County deputy's report claims the
women then got of the van "...and
started yelling at Deputy Karbowski
indicating that they had no authority
to stop them."
Karbowski then asked Wilson, who
said she did not have driver's license
along, to accompany the deputy to his
squad car to run a check, according
to the report. "At that point," the complaint alleges, "both Wilson and the
other female...came at Deputy
Karbowski, hitting and kicking him.
"As Deputy Karbowski was attempting to control JUDKINS and Wilson,"
the complaint alleges, "Cass County
Deputy Sheriff Berglund arrived and
WILSON broke loose...with Deputy
Berglund running after her. Judkins
continued to swing at Deputy
Karbowski with her fists in an attempt
to kick him in the crotch" until the two
deputies managed to subdue the
women, though the report makes no
mention ofthe use of force.
Topping the scales at 105 pounds,
Judkins ridiculed the notion that she
attacked an armed deputy with a reputation for excessive use of force. The
Minnesota Chippewa Tribal member
said she merely questioned
Kabowski's attempts to force Wilson,
her cousin, into the squad car for no
apparent reason.
"We weren't drinking, we weren't
raising hell, the worst he could do was
charge us with no tabs—we thought,"
she said.
"When I asked him what was going
on, he told me it was none of my
ing business, and if I didn't get
(Cont'd page 3, IVaffic)
U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug responds to questions at the Redby town meeting addressing violence on the Red Lake reservation, June 23,1997.
MN Appeals Court Judge addresses NAJA
conference on sovereignty
Feds confiscate items from Clark home in
renewed probe of White Earth officials
By Gary Blair
On June 19,1997, investigators from
the Inspector General's Office ofthe
U.S. Department of HUD searched
imprisoned former White Earth tribal
councilmember Rickie Clark's home
and outside storage buildings for stolen
property.
Sources at the reservation who asked
not to be named say the loot they
found was staggering. The latest move
by federal authorities is said to be part
of their ongoing probe into allegations
that $4.5 million is missing from the
reservation's federally funded housing
program.
Along with former reservation
secretary/treasurer Jerry Rawley, and
former tribal chairman Darrell "Chip"
Wadena, Clark was convicted last June
of Federal corruption charges. The
trio is reported to be the prime suspect
in the latest round of investigations at
White Earth. Sources close to the
investigation say that if Wadena is
convicted in this latest theft, he could
very likely spend the rest of his life in
prison. Clark and Rawley are now
incarerated at the Federal Correctional
Facility near Duluth, MN, while
Wadena is being held at the Federal
Prison at Sandstone, MN.
Reports say the search warrants
served last week at Clark's residence
will be sealed for 60 days. "We want
people to know what's been happening
here. My name is not important at this
point," the source continued.
"They found $ 100 in Clark's house.
In the large storage sheds they found
10 SeaDoo's (personal watercraft).
Six Harley-Davison motor cylces and
two unused speed boats with motors.
One 30ft. cabin curiser boat and four
4-wheel drive pickups. Four Chevy
Subburbans valued at $30,000 a piece
and one motorhome."
Federal investigators also found
building supplies valued at hundreds
of thousands of dollars. They were
stamped with North County Lumber
of Mcintosh, MN, which still had the
job numbers on them. There were rolls
of carpets, padding and boxes of tile.
"You could build 60 houses with the
stuff they found," the source remarked.
"They (authorities) did not have
enough time to get all the stuff out of
Clark's place, so they had to seal the
storage buildings with some of the
stuff still inside.
"The things that they did get are
stored at the reservation housing
program's warehouse. They had the
housing crew build a ply-board wall
up around that stuff, and it's sealed so
no one can get at it," the source
explained. Additional sources say
federal investigators from the
Inspector Generals Office of HUD
and the U.S. Interior Department are
continuing to move forward with their
investigations at White Earth, a place
with a history of corruption.
"Anybody who has been involved in
(Cont'd page 5, Clark)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A state Court
of Appeals judge said Thursday that
the concept of tribal sovereignty
amounts to nothing more than "Red
Apartheid."
"This is a profound issue, a burning
issue, as we move into the 21st century, as you struggle for your rights as
Native American people," Judge R.A.
Randall told about 200 people at a
panel discussion.
The debate was part of the Native
American Journalists Association's
annual conference. Jerry Hill, legal
counsel for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, also was part ofthe discussion.
The U.S. Constitution and numerous treaties recognize tribes as sovereign, or independent, nations. But
Randall said tribal sovereignty works
against - not for - American Indians.
The judge has written two of the
most condemning opinions ofthe con-
Red Lake violence update
By Larry Adams
Last week's PRESS/ON story
concerning the violence happening on
the Red Lake Reservation has sparked
a media frenzy.
In regards to the Chad Beaulieu
beating, Kelly Green was arrested and
charged with assault resulting in
serious bodily harm on June 16,1997,
according to a David Lillehaug U.S.
Department of Justice news release.
Green is an enrolled member of the
Red Lake Nation, which the PRESS/
ON was unable to confirm in last
week's story.
Mike Good, who was reported to be
at the Rueben Wind party, called last
week. Good denied being at the Wind
party. To date, the PRESS/ON has
been unable to positively confirm or
deny Good's presence at the party as
conflicting stories have been reported.
cept. Because of tribal sovereignty, he
said, reservation leaders aren't held
accountable to a higher law, making
it easy for them to abuse their power.
"You simply have to use common
sense and cut out the smoke and rhetoric," he said.
Pounding his fist on a table, Hill retorted, "You accuse tribal leaders of
abusing members, willy-nilly. You're
lumping everybody together."
Last year, the judge wrote a strongly
worded dissent in a tribal sovereignty
case, saying tribal members are Minnesota citizens on Minnesota land. In
that case, a woman who was injured
at a casino sued the casino corporation, but the state Appeals Court ruled
that the corporation's purpose is governmental and, therefore, sovereign.
Randall also has decried the inequities whereby reservations with casinos make big money while those
without casinos remain dirt poor. "I
fear nothing except social injustice for
all people," said Randall, responding
to an implication that he was afraid of
Indians gaining too much power.
Randall is not American Indian but
speaks Ojibwe and has helped to build
an Indian school in Alaska. The judge
has been given an Indian name and
worked with the Lac LaCroix Ojibwe
reservation in Canada to protect its
fishing rights in the Boundary Waters
Canoe Area.
He denied that he was against Indian rights, saying "I am not part of
any 'white guy' movement."
Hill, a past president ofthe American Indian Bar Association, said he is
tired of whites telling Indians what's
good for them. "Non-Indian people
need to know that we don't need to be
defined by them," he said. "We know
who we are.."
Tribal sovereignty discussed at national
conference on gambling
By Julie Shortridge
The National Council of Legislators
from Gaming States held its annual
conference June -20-22 at the
downtown Sheraton Hotel in Hartford,
Connecticut. Approximately 150
legislators, legislative staff, lobbyists
and gambling industry representatives
from 33 states attended the three day
event, which included panel
discussions on various gambling
issues, including state lotteries,
charitable gambling, gambling
addiction, regulations, and tribal
casinos.
One panel was entitled "Indian
Gaming and the States: Does
Sovereignty Have Limits?" Panelists
included Tim Wapato, Executive
Director of the National Indian
Gaming Association in Washington
D.C; Thomas Acevedo, head of
gambling for the Mohegan Tribe in
Connecticut; Sara Bond, Assistant
Attorney General from Montana: and
Alexis Johnson, a private practice
attorney from New Mexico.
Panelists discussed the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), state
authority to restrict certain games at
tribal casinos, and the sources and
extent of tribal sovereignty, including
jurisdictional questions depending on
if a person's legal status is "Indian,"
"non-Indian," or "tribal member" and
whether the activities occur on "Indian
lands" in trust status, within
reservation boundaries, or on other
private or public land.
According to Williams, states do
not have regulatory oversight
concerning tribal gambling
operations. But other panelists pointed
out that tribes cannot legally operate
casinos unless a compact between the
state and the tribe is legally entered
into, the provisions of which may
include some state oversight.
States are obligated by the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act to negotiate
"in good faith" with tribes who want
to open a casino, but states are not
obligated to enter into such ah
agreement. Thus states can, in fact,
prohibit the operation of tribal
casinos, and IGRA allows for states
to restrict some forms of tribal
gambling in some situations.
Wapato and Acevedo claim tribal
sovereignty is "inherent" and predates the United States Constitution,
but Johnson said tribes derive their
sovereignty, as legally defined today,
from the federal government. Tribal
sovereignty is a matter of federal
policy, not law.
"Congress can terminate the legal
status and sovereignty ofa tribe at any
time, but Congress cannot terminate
the sovereignty of a state.... Tribal
sovereignty is not equal to state
sovereignty," Johnson said. He said
that tribal sovereignty does not extend
beyond self-government and internal
matters, or into activities of
commerce. When you put a casino
on tribal ground, the law has tended
to imperfectly apply, for reasons real
and imagined....The law actually
applies to tribal casinos more than
people believe," said Johnson, who is
a constitutional lawyer.
(Cont'd p. 8, Gambling)